Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series (87 page)

Emily turned and finished a bite before
holding up the plastic sack, “You can’t revive any of them without
this.”

The Chief Enforcer looked over at her, “You
have them in there?”

“Just pieces of them,” she
said, and lowered the bag. The entire area suddenly grew quiet as
they watched her.

“May I have them?”

“No, you may not,” Emily
told him, and she felt the Equites surround her. She looked over
when the Valle moved closer.

“Return our coven, now,” Frederick growled
at her.

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll take them back.”

“Everyone calm down,” William shouted.

“Em… what are you going to do with them?”
Zohn asked her.

“I haven’t decided. Maybe
show them a new home in the lake.”

Frederick growled deeply, “Give them
back!”

“Why do you even want them? They’d
petitioned to join the Valle.”

“How do you know that?” William asked,
shocked.

“I found the rejection letter.”

“They did?” William asked Sotomar.

“Yes, they did.”

“Even more reason to try
them before the Council,” Frederick said, his malicious eyes
focused on Emily.

“No,” she told him. “I
don’t want them revived.”

“Give them back!”

“No!” she screamed, and
started for him, but Chevalier picked her up again.

“I’m not going to let you go fight him,” he
said, the amusement no longer in his voice.

“I’m tired of this!” she
screamed. “When I dump these ashes it will prove to every heku that
I’m no longer an easy target. I’m not a political weapon, I’m not
here to use as ransom, and I’m not going to be their punching
bag!”

“You cannot dump them,”
William said softly.

“Wanna watch me?” she
asked, and started to untie the bag.

“Em, stop,” Quinn said,
and turned to her.

Dustin reached out and took the bag from her
before she even saw him coming.

“Give that back!”

“This is not yours. It
belongs to the Encala,” he told her, and headed for
William.

“Then apparently so do you.”

Dustin spun and started for her with a
growl.

Zohn moved to him quickly and put a hand on
his shoulder to stop him, “No.”

Chevalier blurred her to
Winchester 1 and stepped in, followed by Mark, Kyle, and Quinn. He
didn’t let her go until they were in the air.

“That’s my bag,” she said
angrily.

“I don’t agree with how Dustin did it, but
they really do belong to the Encala,” Chevalier told her.

Emily took another piece of pizza, “Where’s
Miri?”

“Allen drove over. He’s
going right back to the island.”

“I want that bag.”

“We can’t do that,” Quinn told her.

Kyle went to the small
freezer and pulled out a few cubes of ice. He wrapped them in a
towel and handed them to Emily, “Any injuries other than the
obvious.”

She put the ice against her swollen eye and
shrugged, “Sonofabitch slammed my head into the wall.”

“That must be where the
blood scent is coming from,” Mark said, and started to look through
her hair. “There it is, pretty good cut.”

Emily batted his hand away, “Leave me
alone.”

Mark grinned and sat back on the soft
couch.

“Do we get to know what’s
in the box?” Quinn asked, looking over at the box that Dustin had
put into the helicopter.

Emily shrugged, “I got it for Chev, but I
guess you all can see.”

“Oh, well thank you,” Quinn chuckled.

Emily took another piece of pizza and sat by
the box. She picked up one file, “This is just the application for
that coven to move to the Valle, along with Sotomar’s rejection
letter.”

Zohn took it and looked it over, “We should
probably hand that back to the Encala.”

“Sure,” Emily said, and
pulled out a file. “This guy here got caught having an affair with
an Equites… Beth. Miri said she lives in Council City.”

Quinn frowned and took the file, “We didn’t
know about that.”

“Mark…” Zohn started.

“As soon as we get back, Sir,” Mark
answered, already knowing what was coming.

“This guy here,” Emily
said, and took a quick bite. “He pretended to be William and tried
to start a war with a Valle coven.”

“Let me see that one,”
Chevalier said, and she handed it over.

“This guy was killed for
trying to warn me about this last kidnapping. He apparently tried
to call, but had an old number.”

“I want to see that,” Kyle
said, and reached out for it. Emily handed it over and then turned
to the fridge and grabbed some orange juice.

“What’s the sledgehammer for in Exavior’s
old house?” Mark asked.

“I tried to get Miri to
destroy the ceremonial room,” she explained, and then looked around
when the heku all gasped and looked at her with wide
eyes.

“You did?” Chevalier asked, surprised.

“Yes, but she wouldn’t do it.”

“I would hope not,” Quinn said.

“So how do you propose I get rid of them
all?”

“There is an official way
that takes months of preparation, full Council approval, and at
least 20 heku.”

Emily rolled her eyes, “Or a big sledge
hammer.”

“That’s never been done, it could be
dangerous,” Kyle told her.

“I think I can use a sledge hammer without
injuring myself.”

“That’d be new,” he said,
and grinned.

Emily glared at him, “I’ll manage.”

“Enough files,” Chevalier
said, and sat back. “What happened?”

“Nothing really. It was
kind of boring.”

“How’d they get you?”

“They tasered us at the
house.”

“Then what?”

“Then I woke up in a cell on the floor, Miri
was restrained against the wall.”

“Did they say why?”

“No, but I know… I killed their mortal.”

Chevalier sighed, “The
Ancient?”

“Yes”

“Nice, that wasn’t your fault.”

“I know that, but
apparently they don’t believe it.”

“Will this mean you’ll be leaving us?” Quinn
asked.

Emily frowned slightly, “Why?”

“It just seems after being
kidnapped, you often leave for a while.”

She shrugged, “I’m getting used to it.”

Chevalier growled slightly and Emily smiled
at him.

“Again, guards…” Zohn said, irritated.

“I know! I know, you don’t have to tell
me.”

“Next time you want to
attack an Encala, why don’t you not choose Frederick,” Kyle said,
and smiled slightly.

“They’re lucky I didn’t ash all of
them.”

“But not for the kidnapping…” Quinn
said.

“No… I’m tired of getting knocked
around.”

“I see.”

“Now my head hurts, my cheek hurts, I can’t
see out of my left eye, it’s all annoying as hell… kidnapping I can
handle, but it pisses me off to get hit.”

“Landing in 2 minutes, Elders,” the pilot
called back.

Emily stood up and stretched, then looked
out the window.

“Em?” Chevalier said.

Emily turned around and he
had his cape held out to her. She looked down, slipped it on, and
then wrapped it tightly around herself.

They all got out, Emily last, and headed
inside. She looked over and saw Silas and Kralen watching her
angrily.

She narrowed her eyes and
walked over to them, “Don’t give me that! I didn’t slip my guards.
I told the Council where I was going and with whom.”

“You should have taken us,” Kralen snapped
at her.

“Yeah well I didn’t… and I don’t need your
shit for it.”

Without a word, Silas blurred away from her
and she turned back to Kralen.

“Give him time, he’s really mad this time,”
Kralen told her.

“I didn’t slip my guards!”

“Not taking guards is as
bad as slipping them,” he said, and lifted her chin to look up at
him. He studied her face and then sighed, “Had quite the little
beating didn’t you? Where’s the smell of blood coming
from?”

Emily pushed his hand away, “I’m fine.”

She turned and walked into the palace.

Emily felt around in bed
for Chevalier, and when she didn’t find him, stretched and sat up.
She could hear the wind howling through the eaves and got up to
look out the window. The blizzard was bad enough she couldn’t even
see the barn. In the two months since her capture by the Encala,
it’d snowed almost every day and on those days when it didn’t snow,
the temperature dropped below zero. She was ready for some sun, but
even the island was in the middle of a cold spell.

She heard a knock on the door and didn’t
even turn, “Come in.”

“M’Lady, just breakfast,” a soft voice
said.

“Thank you,” she told him,
and shut the drapes. By the time she turned around, he was gone and
the door was already shut.

She sat down by the fire and took a cup of
coffee, “Who’re my guards?”

Kralen poked his head in, “Did you need
us?”

“Yes, come sit,” she said,
and pushed a chair away from the table with her foot.

Kralen came in, followed
by three members of the Cavalry. He sat down, but the other three
positioned themselves around her room.

“What’s up?” he asked, not sure he should be
in her room while she was still in her nightgown.

“Where’s Chev?”

“He, Kyle, and Quinn left
on a mission. Didn’t he tell you?”

“Damn, yes he did,” she sighed and took
another sip. “Did they take Dustin?”

“No, he’s here,” Kralen
said, fighting back the urge to growl. The Cavalry was still mad
over what he did to Emily and how he tried to disband
them.

“It’s going to be hard to stay out of his
way with this weather.”

“It’s not letting up either.”

“We could take the horses out for some
training in the snow.”

“Except there are only 8
of us left. The others went with the Elder.”

Emily reached over and grabbed a muffin and
ate it while she watched the fire. After a few minutes, she looked
over at Kralen, “We could go 4-wheeling.”

“In this? The Elder would
kill us,” Kralen told her.

“I’m so bored!”

“I have a penis,” Dain
said from behind her. She looked over at him, and he crawled into
her arms.

“Yes, you do… might wanna stop announcing
that though,” she told him.

Dain frowned, “But I do.”

“We’re all aware of that,
Baby.”

“Where’s yours?” he asked, watching her.

Emily coughed when she
choked on her muffin and sat him down as the heku guards laughed,
“On that note, I’m going to take a shower. Will you watch
him?”

Kralen grinned, “Yes.”

She turned to look at him, “Don’t teach him
anything.”

“I won’t.”

Emily walked into the bathroom and shut the
door just as Dain spoke again.

“Do you have a penis?” he asked, looking at
Kralen.

“Well… yes.”

“Kralen!” Emily yelled. “Stop it!”

“What?” he asked through the door.

“Find something else to
talk about,” she said, just as the water started.

Kralen put the toddler
down and watched as he proceeded to strip and then crawled up onto
the large bed and began to play with a toy truck.

“Should we dress him?” one of the guards
asked.

“Won’t matter, he’ll just take them
off.”

“Ok, Sir.”

The room fell quiet until Emily came back
out. She was wearing her black sports bra and cut-off sweat pants
that were rolled down low on her hips.

“Alex!” she called out.

Alexis came in a few minutes later, reading
a book, “I got him…”

Emily smiled and started
out the door, followed by the four guards. When she opened the
front door, the hard sleet blew into the palace and she shut the
door quickly.

“I told you it was snowing,” Kralen
said.

“I know that, but I just
need to make it to the out-building. I’ll just run,” she said, and
then braced herself and opened the door again. She ran for the
outbuilding, ignoring how the hard sleet felt like tiny needles
against her skin. She shook the snow off of her and out of her hair
inside and then headed for the equipment room.

“We’ll wait out here,”
Kralen told her, and two guards moved off to the side door of the
room while Kralen and another stood by the front.

Emily turned on her iPod
and then set the treadmill for a steady pace. She debated turning
on the TV, but decided to just listen to music and watch the heku
in the training room. She didn’t know him, but he looked deeply
engrossed in some type of rhythmic dance that she’d seen before on
martial arts movies.

She began to watch him
more closely as he practiced kicking, hitting, and blocking. There
were several dummies placed around the room and he’d smoothly
managed to damage all of them. She stopped the treadmill and
watched him closer.

“Kralen?”

Kralen stepped in, “Yeah?”

“Who is that?” she asked, motioning to the
heku in the training room.

Kralen looked over,
“That’s Wen. He’s one of the new guards that came in from
China.”

“Does he speak English?”

“Yes, but he’s quiet,
keeps to himself. We’ve heard he’s pretty mean and was sent over
specifically to toughen up the guards under him.”